Independent editor severely beaten

New York, November 14, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces the brutal
attack on Mikhail Beketov, editor-in-chief of the Khimki-based independent
newspaper Khimkinskaya Pravda, and
calls on Russian authorities to investigate it thoroughly and bring all those
responsible to justice.

Beketov is currently hospitalized in a coma in a local
hospital in the city of Khimki.

Neighbors found Beketov unconscious in his backyard in the village of Starbeyevo,
Khimki region, on Thursday. He had lain there since the day before, when he was
attacked, according to local news reports.He was taken to a local hospital with multiple fractures, hematomas, a
cracked skull, and a brain concussion; he has been in coma since. Khimki
regional police told the local press that theyhave opened an investigation into the attack

Beketov had heavily criticized
the Khimki administration's decision to deforest a vast area of the region's
woods in order to build a freeway connecting Moscow
and St. Petersburg.
He received multiple threats and was often at odds with the local government, local environmental protection group
EcoOborona activist Yevgeniya Chirikova, who has contributed to
Beketov's paper, told CPJ.

"We condemn this
vicious attack on Mikhail Beketov and call on the authorities to undertake a thorough
and transparent investigation into it," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program
Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "Russia's record
on attacks on independent and critical reporters is appalling and authorities
should not let impunity prevail in yet another case."

Chirikova said Beketov had received multiple threats in
connection to his work; in a recent conversation with a colleague, Beketov
mentioned that several unknown men had approached him and told him, "You're due
for a hit."

Chirikova told CPJ that Beketov's paper was the only outlet
that covered environmental issues and criticized the Khimki administration on
their environmental blunders. "Now this vicious attack has silenced him--there's
no doubt they attacked him for his journalism," Chirikova said. EcoOborona
wrote an open letter to President Dmitry
Medvedev today, calling him to ensure that the attack is properly investigated.

According to independent radio station Ekho Moskvy, the deputy
head of Russia's
state environmental agency Rosprirodnadzor, Oleg Mitvol, also said that the
attack was related to Beketov's journalism.

After Khimkinskaya
Pravda published an article on excavations at a World War II burial site in
2007, local prosecutors opened a criminal case against Beketov on defamation
charges, he told independent newsweekly The
New Times earlier this year. The case remains unresolved. He also said that
local authorities had harassed public distributors and seized print runs of his
newspaper, and that local businesses were warned not to place ads in Khimkinskaya Pravda. He told the paper
that in May 2007 unidentified men set his car on fire.